Larry-bob's Mailbox

The point of this page is to have up-to date information about
queer zines and music as I get it. Sometimes in the past I've
built up a backlog - this way you find out about it as soon
as I get it. These little mini-blurbs are short by
necessity - I will probably expand on things in the next
Queer Zine Explosion.
Oct/Nov 1999 mailbox archiveAugust/Sept 1999 mailbox archive
August 27, 2012:
Alabaser Choad is a now-defunct band from the west coast that has
just put out a vinyl LP, "Crash Of The Limburger On Bebushland."
The music and visual style of the sleeve and lyric sheet remind me
of punk psychedelia like
the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, and Cypher in the Snow.
Song topics include the annoyance of the Blue Angels' noise pollution of San
Francisco ("Dicks in the Air"), and other song titles include "Chuck
Mangina, We Don't Wear No Pants", and "Assmerica."
It's a small pressing run - you can get a copy through
Aquarius Records in SF
or you can contact the band through the contact info at
OrsonWagon.com
October 10, 2011:
Going through mail and finding some zines that had not been included
before:

Nancy: A Queer Zine:
zine celebrating effeminate queers.
Contact Alex Creep (who is based in the UK) at creepclub@gmail.com

September 4, 2011:
Video of zines from the 2011 San Francisco Zine Fest:
December 4, 2010:
Video edition of Larry-bob's Mailbox with the zine Fag Punk and more:
August 11, 2006:

I don't get as many zines as I used to... not by a long shot. Mostly
it's because I've become very unreliable as a snail mail correspondent.
I pretty regularly still get copies of Batteries Not Included. And I get notices from Reb
of Fanorama
about new issues of that and associated zines.

Anyway, I do occaionally get zines that are previously unfamiliar to me.
I'd had a little online correspondence with the editor of this zine,
and he sent me a copy. "how i learned to love myself, and occaionally
other men" is a mini-size zine. The writer is self-described as punk
and gay. The zine is about his coming out process. At the beginning,
he had a girlfriend, and was curious about sex with guys
but always chickened out before going through with it.
Until he read on the internet about queerpunk. Anyway, I don't
need to spoil the whole story, but it's a nice read. You can get in
contact here -- http://www.beetfarm.org/tunazine/ or email dave [at] beetfarm.org

I'm not able to make it up to Portland this weekend, but there is a
Portland Zine Symposium there
this weekend and there is a queer zine panel on Sunday afternoon.
I think that Dave from the above mentioned zine will be there, and
so will Milo of QZAP.org, the
queer zine archive project.

January 24, 2005:

I got a zine in the mail recently. It's called Hot And Heavy
and it features clippings of ads for old gay porn movies.
The guy went through old issues of The Village Voice pasted
this up from that.

Send $2 to
Snackbar Confidential,
PO Box 1359,
Huntington, NY 11743.

October 5, 2004:

Got a new zine done by Brontez, who is involved with various music
things like Gravy Train!!!, Veronica Lipgloss, etc. The zine is
called Fag School, and includes an interview with writer Alvin Orloff,
author of the new book Gutter Boys, a series of photos of the life
of a gogo boy, advice from Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile, interview
with the Husbands, questionaire with Scream Club, photo pictorial
of two guys playing music together and having sex, reviews of books,
videos, porn, and cruising. For info send email to bulletproofslug {at}
hotmail or send $3 to 2846 Chapman St., Oakland, CA 94601.

March 3, 2003:

Bil Sherman from Minneapolis has a new book of his underground
comics called "Wanky Comics."

I got a couple CDs in a package. One, by
Busu-Chan
is self-described as a "one-man bnand featuring a reclusive transvestite
obsessed with Hello Kitty and True Norwegian Black Metal."
Despite the bedroom credentials, it does have real guitar and stuff on
it, and the lyrics are clever, if rather sophomoric.

The other CD, Steven Schultz' "I forgot to get a rap name"
is a similiarly wacky take on hiphop. The backing tracks
are played by the musician on real instruments and sampled.
Song titles are like "Call me Pinkbeard, mistress of the High Seas"
rapped in the character of a gay pirate,
and "Fuck a Harpoon," rapped by a killer whale.

Today people pay hundreds of dollars for self-released
psychedelic records from the early 70s, while current self-released
psychedelic CDs won't even fetch 50 cents from the used record
store up on Haight Street. Perhaps in 30 years the $10 investment
will be returned a hundred-fold. Who knows.

August 21, 2002

There's a new compilation out from Martin's
label Lengua Armada. The compilation is called
Histeria. The three new Limpwrist songs are
Complex, Angry Queen, and The Ode. The latter
pays homage to some old-school queer punks.

Other bands on the compilation are
Life's Halt, Seein Red, E-150, Esperanza,
DS-13, Deathreat, Sin Orden, and Melee.
It's $8 PPD in the US.
No checks, only cash or postal money orders payable to:
Martin,
1010 1/2 Riverine Ave.,
Santa Ana, CA,
92701.
The Limpwrist LP is the same price.
Also available is a Los Crudos discography CD for $9.
I got my copy at Amoeba in San Francisco, and they had
a bunch of them.

My Heroes Always Have Been Ponyboys #6:
Zine by the former editor of the zine Noise Queen.
Report on Toronto Pride; article on a Carter Family song and
a Joan Jett song, both with a lesbian subtext;
An article critical of U.S. foreign policy;
reviews of books and records.
Tim Murphy, POB 28010, Bagot PO, Kingston, ON K7L 1A0, Canada.
web: http://www.geocities.com/ponyboyzine

One year later... It Still Hurts.:
CD compilation of queer bands in commemeration of the one year
anniversary of the G8 in Genoa. Put together by Italian queer
zine Speeddemon.
More information on the CD. Send $6 postpaid to
their address:
Speeddemon c/o Magnani
Via Ponte Seveso 66
20125 Milano
Italy.

After FX #11:
Little review zine with reviews of zines and records. Send a couple
stamps to James D. Harvey, 371 Corssfield Rd, King of
Prussia, PA 19406.

Wow, haven't done this in a couple of years... here's some
newly arrived items:

Domestic Partner of Frankenstein -- comic about a mad
scientist who creates a monster with the heart of a middle-aged
gay antiques appraiser. The monster gets lonely... Very amusing.
$3.50 to 1573 N. Milwaukie Ave, PMB #464, Chicago, IL 60622.

Bears on Bears edited by Ron Jackson Suresha -- book with
various interviews regarding bear culture. From Alyson Books.

Scrunge -- little mini zine with lists of various stuff --
one issue covers Amsterdam, another Minneapolis/St. Paul, and
also I got sent a big fold out sheet illustrating Hawaiian fauna.
Also on the web.
contact: scrunge@hotmail.com

Friday, Feb 18, 2000

Here's another bit of chipping away at the backlog. There's more to
come, much much more.

Charlotte of Kink has a new one of her big folded up
one-pagers. This one's entitled Dumb, and is about the
Millennium Dome, the world's fair type monstrosity recently built
in London. Admission is overpriced at £20.
People suggest different dome zones that ought to exist. There's
observations of dads doing dad-like behavior, and more.
Email: beefergrrl@hotmail.com 2 pages, oversized.
$1 to Charlotte, 33 Romford Road, Stratford, London E15 4LY UK
http://www.charlottecooper.net/

R. Eirik Ott sent me the first two issues of his zine
The Wussy Boy Chronicles: Caught somewhere between GUY and GAY.
It's a zine about growing up something like the character Duckie in
Pretty in Pink. Not gay, but not the stereotypical macho guy.
There's examination of pop-culture wussy boys of film, like Matthew
Broderick, and the early films of Anthony Michael Hall before he
"metamorphosed into the Cock Man Oppressor in 'Edward Scissorhands.'"
There's lots of writing in these thick zines (80 digest-sized pages in
issue 1, 60 in issue 2), mostly prose, with some poetry. Some of the
prose is about poetry, or at least going to poetry slams.
email: poetryslam@hotmail.com $5 each to PO Box 1467, Chico, CA 95927-1467.

Violet Jones sent me Spunk #6, a folded one-pager with
an essay about the state of the independent creative folks known
as "zinesters." Plus she's doing a time capsule project to be
buried in a national park, so send her your zines for that.
Violet Jones, PO Box 55336, Hayward, CA 94545.

Tuesday, Feb 15, 2000

Running, but I can't even catch up. Another full mailbox today.
Well, I'll treat the new stuff now, and catch up on the backlog
later.

Milo sent me a new issue, #3, of his zine Mutate. It's
got an interview with Pansy Division, coming out, a poem about
gender by binarygirl, being a late bloomer, the Gap, binarygirl
on losing her mother at an early age and growning up transgendered.
email: miloboy@execpc.com -- website www.milosworld.com
Half standard (tall) 24 pages, free.

I got a copy of the French-language Anarcho-fairie zine
Bang Bang. It has articles on Mumia's statement
against anti-gay violence, La Croiseiére, a gathering
of queer men, the Italian/French/Swiss Queer Liberation Front,
Lesbian, gay, bi, and trans pride in Toulouse, and more.
For a copy, contact bangbang1969@hotmail.com

Books, I got books. Gutter
Press sent me a copy of Derek McCormack's book
Wish Book: A Gatalogue of Stories. I've read his earlier book
about growing up queer in the 50s, Dark Rides and I'm looking
forward to reading this. It's illustrated by Ian of
Pas de Chance

Alyson Publications sent me a review copy of
Pat Califia's new collection of erotic S/M fiction, No Mercy.
It's supposed to be out in June (just in time for gay pride, when we
all come out from under our rocks).

Plus I got a few zine orders, which I need to fulfil. Stay tuned
folks, I've got more.

Monday, Feb 14, 2000

Oh man. I'm really behind on this. I've got lots of mail. I don't
even remember what order I got it in. I'm just going to have to start
doing a bit at a time and catching up. I guess I've been spending more
time on QComedy.com and stuff
related to that recently.

Rudy from Scutter sent me some back issues of his zine. Not
really sure if these back issues are generally available, but write
him and see about current issues - a new one should be out soon.
There's stuff on Pansy Division, Bis, Janeane Garofalo, Nada Surf,
Ozma, The Muffs, and more.
Rudy, PO Box 3247, Alhambra, CA 91803. email: scutterzine@aol.com

DJ Snax, who is the artist formerly known as Paul Bonomo
of Fagbash, was kind enough to send me a vinyl LP of his
music under the name of Bedroom Productions. Unfortunately
the post office was unkind enough to bend it
in the process of jamming it into my PO Box. It seems a little
warped. Anyway, I need to get around to listening to it and a bunch
of other music that's been sent to me. For now, check out this
Bedroom
Productions webpage.

Monday, Jan 10, 2000

OK, finally some new mail for the new Millennium. Stuff was a little
slow coming in at first, but now I've got an actual backlog due to my
procrastination.

Moneyshot #9 -
big zine from Angelina, with lots of fantastic content. Before I
launch into the full description, just let me mention that the
piece on being a goth of color was, I believe the first time that
I'd seen this topic discussed in a zine, and about time!
The contents include a piece in defense
of Pandora; famous borderline personalities from cinema; beauty tips;
a narrative about a woman who gets a crush on her counselor in a program;
reactions to Tori Amos: drama queendom; admitting to liking country;
a piece about weight; Anelina picks apart her friend Kim's lifestyle;
profile of Theresa of Go Teen Go; domestic violence; a love-life lament
about not finding the right princess; Wal-mart at two a.m.; fiction
about going to a friend's funeral; a journal entry from 1991; a
paper comparing two James Bond themes; a piece about a friend who
died of a heroin overdose, and also Gia; Black Bat: Confessions
of a black goth; What's Rose McGowen ever done to you?; going bowling
with Carrie the stripper; one size doesn't fit anyone; and that's
not even absolutely everything. Such a deal!
Also available from Angelina is the mini-zine Pinkbubble Zine. It's
got: Stuff on Y2K; girls who wear glasses; people who don't mind
their own business about other people's weight; the disappearance
of privacy; life as a manic depressive; memories of Rocky Horror days;
concentrating more on developing friendships rather than getting needs
met sexually, and a friendship with a woman named Jill; thoughts on
one-night stands; plus more.
Moneyshot: 36 pages, standard. Pinkbubble Zine: 32 pages, mini.
Send $2 for Moneyshot and/or $1 for The Pinkbubble Zine to
PO Box 3024, Fayetteville, NC 28302-3024.

Rita Lynch has a new four song EP
called Far Away. The title track is a slow, gentle number
of vocals, guitar, with a rhythm section in the background,
and the second track, Fallen, is in the same vein.
The third track, "I am Obsessed," with its faster tempo, guitar
bends, and desperate confidentiality brings to mind P.J. Harvey.
Feels like the end of the world slowly builds, a dramatic end
to the disc.
Well-produced, and I like getting music in a small, well-chosen
dose like this rather than the over-lengthy albums that seem too
common these days.
There's a website here. Email address is barbaradarby@compuserve.com

Boyd X #6 is a zine that's a little hard to get a handle on.
Apparently at one point Boyd, the editor, did a zine called Confessions
of a Male Lesbian. There's essays (with footnotes even) referencing
Nietzsche, Ginsberg, and even Bruce Benderson's Toward the New
Degeneracy (was the Benderson among the assigned texts for Boyd's
Cold War: Film and Fiction class?) And there's also a lot of found
magazine pictures of female models. 52 pages, standard, with full color
cover. $2 to Boyd, POB 352135, Toledo, OH 43635-2135.

Got mail about the Underground Publishing Conference, to be
held 10-11 June 2000 in Bowling Green Ohio. Note that they're
looking for proposals for panels by April 1st. For more info
contact Jason at 216 South Church St., Bowling Green, OH
43402, or upcon2000@hotmail.com

Speaking of small press conferences, I got a reminder card that
Alternative Press Expo (APE) will be in
SF February 5, 2000.

The Zine Yearbook Vol 4 is being prepared - send nominations for
outstanding pieces from zines published in 1999 by 2/28/2000
to becomethemedia@earthlink.net

Clamor is a new magazine coming out in Feb 2000 with stuff on Howard
Zinn, amateur boxing, graf writers, a firsthand account of a first
pregnancy, sexual abuse survival, media and technology, coffee and
free trade economics, WTO analysis, straightedge and women, fostering
creativity, backpacking, the kkk and community organizing, bicycle
commuting, Richard Smith and privacy issues, U.S. political prisoners,
and monogamy. Send $4 for a single issue or $20 for a 4 issue subscription
(checks payable to Become the Media) to POB 1225, Bowling Green, OH
43402. Email: clamormagazine@hotmail.com

It's been a while since I've reviewed stuff, and the bag of
unreviewed material is beginning to resemble Santa's sack of
toys. So here's a special Xmas eve's eve bonaza.

The Homocore Mpls: Live and Loud compilation is a first
so far as I can figure - a compilation of queer bands playing
live. Bands include The Need, Lucifag, Mas Scara, Tribe 8,
The Butchies, Fashion Sense, Harum-Scarum, Stephanie
McCarter, Sherman Electric, Slalom, and Fagatron.
For more info, see the Homocore
Minneapolis webpage.
Left Records, PO Box 300002, Minneapolis, MN 55403.

I See Gays is a document of
C. Bard Cole's
reading series at the Lower East Side bar sometimes known as
I.C. Guys. The contributors to the zine are Travis Jeppesen,
Emanuel Xavier, Brian Sloan, Ishmael Houston-Jones,
Aldo Alvarez, Aaron Jason, C. Bard Cole, Matt Bernstein Sycamore,
and Robert Kirby. Check Bard's web page for more info.

Alternative Tentacles
sent me the new CD by Black Kali Ma, which is the new band
of Gary Floyd, formerly of the Dicks and Sister Double Happiness.
I haven't heard Gary's last few solo albums, which by and large
weren't released in the U.S., but it's good to hear his music again,
and it's very ferocious and hard-rocking.

The Urban Hermit #6.
Sarah, who created the zine "Too many bisexual rockstars and
not enough lesbian hip hop artists," includes in this issue
some more thoughts on performing as a lesbian freestyler.
Plus travels to Detroit, which has a lot of dots painted on
it, and San Francisco.
$1 to Sarah O'Donnel, PMB 910, 1122 E. Pike, Seattle, WA, 98122.

The Assassin and the Whiner #11. Carrie's comic zine
is a diary of her life. In this issue she's covering the early
part of 1999 when she was spending time on the east coast with
a girlfriend, but things weren't exactly working out.
16 pages, digest. $1 to PO Box 481051, LA CA 90048.

Strap Yerself In #2 has a lot of stuff about a queer kid
traveling on road trips, including
bike travel in Florida, and hitch-hiking around the western U.S. Sam
is also starting a bookstore in Bloomington.
40 pages, digest. $1 to Sam, Po Box 954, Bloomington, IN 47402-0954.

Agitart
sent me some holiday cards with a checklist for gathering
at the holday table, including items like "stop uncle when he
cracks a racist joke," and "speak up when nephew asks: 'how
do lesbians have sex?," plus reminding folks about the meat
industry and more.

Steven Gellman's CD Photobook takes the form of an
album of photographs, each song like a picture. The music
is acoustic, in a folk vein, with electric instruments on
some songs. The song "Different" is about being queer, though
that's more apparent from the context of the lyric booklet,
with its quote about coming out from Armisted Maupin.
For more information and sound samples, visit
hiddenpoet.com.
Hidden Poet Music, PO Box 501, Germantown, MD 20875.

The December 1999 Batteries Not Included has a piece about
a Jr. High band covering the song "She has a girlfriend now";
a piece by Mykel Board about moving beyond being a victim;
and articles about porn.
$3 to BNI, 130 W. Limestone St., Yellow Springs, OH 45387, or
BNI@aol.com

Plus I got several holiday cards, and a couple of actual orders
for Holy Titclamps. Maybe the nice mention I got in the new
Zine Guide helped.

Friday, Dec 10, 1999

Being Red is the new novelette by Heather Lynn, author
of how i learned to do IT bloody murder. The chapbook
form of her books recall early
Kathy Acker (aka The Black Tarantula),
the confessional content recalls
Mary MacLane.
In this novelette, a series of highschool girls die of eating
disorders, a sort of serial crime with an amnesiac killer.
The baffled detective of this mystery is the news media,
which asks and fails to answer the question "why."
email: heatherlynn79@hotmail.com.
$4 to Heather Lynn, PO Box 7023, Grayslake, IL, 60030-7023.

The December 1999 A&U: America's AIDS Magazine has
David Cassidy on the cover. Includes an article on writer Paul Lisicky and
an excerpt from his new first novel, Lawnboy.

Artists' Television Acess is
upgrading their electrical systems, and needs donations. They sent
me some mail about it. Their suggested donation is $35. Their
address: ATA, 992 Valencia, SF CA 94110.

Got a catalog from Factor Press, publisher of Celebrate the
Self, which is a publication about masturbation. To request a
copy, write Factor Press, PO Box 8888, Mobile, Alabama 36689-8888.

Maybe it's the Xmas season that's the reason for all the catalogs.
Got the new catalog from Blowfish,
which sells sex products, books, and videos.

Friday, Dec 3, 1999

Fanorama #19: A whirlwind roadtrip across the U.S. provides
the completion impetus for this issue and the photo for the color
cover picture of editor REB's friend Collin aiming a super-8
camera at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Contents include an old
article on nudism re-appropraited to refer to the faeries;
Cyrus comics by Sina; an excerpt from REB's "The Boy with the
Invisible Heart"; "Shy guy" nude photos (but he won't show his
face...; letters from readers; creating a labyrinth; commentary
on AIDS infections stopping their decline; poetry; a eulogy to
Beowulf Thorne of Diseased Pariah News; a quote from The Faggots
and their Friends Between Revolutions.
48 pages, half-legal. $5 to 109 Arnold Ave, Cranston, RI 02905.
email: fanorama1@aol.com